Let's Go Wild!

You have to remember how bad Chicago sucked for years at or near the bottom of the NHL for several years. That along with good drafting of top picks made them a great team as the system is designed to do. I didn’t fact check this but I don’t think the wild team have had a top three pick more than once, and that was their first year (Gaborik). Lemaire got more out of weak lineup year after year so that we normally drafted about 10th. Combine no high round 1st rounders with the most ineffective and a joke of a GM in the league you end up with what the wild have become. I think Fletcher is a good hockey mind, and has turned the program around in the right direction. We still have a very young team and were hoping to get more out of the young guys, and we brought many up before they were ready. They do have some holes to fill, but in many ways Fletch has painted himself into a corner with some bad contracts that he is stuck with. It will be an interesting summer to see the changes. I don’t think Craig Leiplod is a patient owner, and I think that is a good thing. He is the one owner in town that spends money to try to put a competitive team out there.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I was saying to Mrs. Grouse last night, how do the Wild NOT end up with at least one of these franchise players like Kane. Or Towes. Or Hosa. Or…

Well, the answer is you can’t blow your first round draft picks like the Wild were doing from 2004-2009 when they picked a list of busts, losers, and no-names and then managed to trade off the only first round choice (2009 Nick Leddy) who turned out to be worth anything. Traded him to Chicago.

I’m seeing signs of life in the last two years with Dumba and last year with Tuch, but overall the Wild have been miserable in the first round and below par in the second.

It was great to get Parasie and Suter as free agents who finally worked out, but overall if you look at the league there’s not much that’s going to do you MORE good than picking right in the first two rounds.

Compare to the Blackhawks:

Draft: W Patrick Kane, first round (first overall) 2007; C Jonathan Toews, first round (third overall), 2006; D Duncan Keith, second round, 2002; D Brent Seabrook, first round, 2003; G Corey Crawford, second round, 2003; W Brandon Saad, second round, 2011; W Bryan Bickell, second round, 2004; D Niklas Hjalmarsson, fourth round, 2005.

Free agency: W Marian Hossa, 2009, 12-year, $63 million contract.

Trades: W Patrick Sharp, 2005, from Philadelphia for Matt Ellison; D Johnny Oduya, 2012, from Winnipeg for second- and third-round picks.

It was great the way the Wild pulled up from their tailspin this year, but overall there’s still a lot to be done because as we see with Chicago, the gap between a team that can win in Round 1 and then win again in Round 2 is pretty wide.

It’ll be interesting to see what the off season brings. The Wild will shed Backstrom, Harding, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some trades around draft time.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

So basically the question for me is when does Tuch get into the lineup and who’s going to get traded this off season?

I imagine Tuchs a couple years away at least. Unless they think he can play on the big club, they’ll let him finish off at BU.

I don’t see any trades. I don’t see us moving young guys still in their entry level, RA contracts.

I just looked, our average 1st round pick is 12.6. It is very rare to draft a franchise player 12 or 13th overall. It can be done, but it comes down to luck, and that is something the wild don’t have.

mplspug wrote:

…it’s hard to stay out of this thread. I’ll try and stay nice.

First of all I think the Wild were mentally exhausted from trying to just make the playoffs. Much like President trophy winners who drain themselves trying to have the best regular season record.

Vanek, congratulations, we have Heatley 2.0….except this one does nothing in the playoffs. I can’t believe people were pining for him for 2 years. He’s streaky, but not conventional streaky where you have a good run and then are average.

I’m losing or have lost my patience with Coyle. He’s really not progressing. Certainly no where close to being a power forward AT this point. I wouldn’t be upset if they traded him, but that isn’t going to happen. So my best recourse is to hope he pulls his head out this off season.

I get the fact that 0 PO goals for Vanek is frustrating, but what are your ideas for a 52 point, 20+ goal scorer to replace him with?

Where would the Wild have been without 21 goals this season? Which is exactly the situation they would have been in because getting Vanek’s 21 goals didn’t cost them other players who were already scoring.

The list of Playoff Underachievers is a lot longer than just Vanek IMO: With Vanek, I’d add Coyle, Koivu, and to be honest Grandlund and Pominville weren’t exactly stellar either.

I agree, last year we had a coming out party for some young players, but this year we had a lot of guys who didn’t show up for the party.

I thing you’re 100% right, the Wild were gassed from having to fight so hard just to drag it in in the wild card spot.

Well, at least Yeo has said that the 2014-15 season was a good learning experience. This comes on top of last year’s exit in round 2 when he said that it was a good learning experience. And that was after the 2013 playoff exit, which he called–wait for it–a good learning experience.

Grouse

for them or him….?

big_g wrote:

for them or him….?

Or us?

My problem with Vanek is he’s a liability when he’s not on his game. I still think he was overhyped when we signed him. Now we are stuck with him and his contract. Yeah I love him when he is on because he’s really good, but when he’s bad he doesn’t disappear, he leads to bad things.

Moot point. We’re stuck with him and he isn’t going to get better.

Full disclosure I am a Colorado Avalanche fan first. I am a fan of the Wild and a bigger fan of hockey.

A concern that I think is being overlooked and should be addressed for the Wild is goaltending. Dub had a great resurgence and a pretty solid playoffs but is he the future?

Yao needs to go IMO. Dub saved his job this season and really he shouldn’t have.

If Crawford doesn’t make 3 or 4 of the many high quality saves he did this series is still going.

I know the MN “if” game, but…

something lost in this was Doobs was good, but not playoff good. There are plenty he would like back I am sure. Crawford I think let one soft one in All series.

This was his first appearance In the playoffs. He also played a hell of a lot by necessity in the second half. We were able to get by the Blues probably because they had a lot of pressure on them and Allen wasn’t exactly standing on his head.

I think in order to get deeper next year the wild has to cruise into the playoffs by having a good year start to finish. Home ice advantage would be a big boost too.

Good Russo read

off season

I love spurgeon (so much I’ve joked about having a man crush on him) be he might be the best asset we can afford to trade. He should bring a decent goal scorer in return.

Spurgeon isn’t the only one on the block. To mix my Scanadivian metaphores, there’s a smorgasbord of Finns on the block. Grandlund is on the trading block and my prediction is that so is Koivu. Obviously, Haula is on the block and also Backstron, but there will be few takers, if any for him.

Coyle may have 1 more year to get it together, but I think he’s gone if the right deal presents itself.

I cannot have gone unnoticed by Fletcher how many of the Wild players are over 30. It ain’t gonna get any easier next year. I actually predict some bold moves because the writing on the wall is clear: Find firepower or die.

Oh and let’s make it official: Yeo must go.

Grouse

Here we go again…he’s not going anywhere nor should he. 46-28 coaches that make it to the round of 8 don’t get fired. You need to find a new scapegoat…RR

I can see Granlund being Bouchard 2.0. I actually didn’t mind how he played in the playoffs, but he hasn’t progressed much.

I’d be absolutely shocked if they traded away Koivu. It’d have to be for a center who can do everything he does, win faceoffs, play both top line special teams and be really good in his own end.

mplspug wrote:

I can see Granlund being Bouchard 2.0. I actually didn’t mind how he played in the playoffs, but he hasn’t progressed much.

I’d be absolutely shocked if they traded away Koivu. It’d have to be for a center who can do everything he does, win faceoffs, play both top line special teams and be really good in his own end.

Nailed it…RR

Nobody is gonna touch Koivu’s contract, if you’re gonna spend that much $$ on a center, then he better produce points, Koivu doesn’t….If faceoffs are important, you can find a 4th line center who wins faceoffs and use him when needed. Koivu’s % was just average, he was routinely worked over in the playoffs against Vermette/Toews…If we could sign Vermette as a free agent to replace Brodsziak, that could be huge, I wanted the Wild to sign him years ago when he left Ottawa…

Other than our only real trading chips (Spurgeon/Granlund) I can possibly see Pominville traded to the Oilers for Yakupov. The Oilers need a veteran to lead all the kids they have and we need a “potential” pure goal scorer, Yakupov is just that, but he’s also has “potential” to fizzle out of the league in 2 years….. but you need to take chances…

I’d trade Spurgeon for a tough/rugged veteran defenseman (Like a Barrett Jackman) keep Granlund and finally give him a winger who can actually bury chances vs Pomminville’s whiff shots…Yakupov with Granlund could be good

After that, we’re not trading our core players and we’re stuck with Vanek. Hopefully the coaching staff can open his eyes and he returns to form, but I think he’ll just milk this contract and retire in 2 years…

mplspug wrote:

I can see Granlund being Bouchard 2.0. I actually didn’t mind how he played in the playoffs, but he hasn’t progressed much.

I think you’ve got it basically right. Grandlund was our best playoff center, I think it’s more about trajectory. I think any trade would be based on the question of is he on the way up or has he plateaued?

I think it could be an interesting off season and I’m curious to see what happens around draft time.

I wonder what the main question is for next season? While a lot of people might be fixated on “How do we get past the Blackhawks and round 2?”, I think there’s another question.

I also have to wonder if there isn’t a bigger question of “How do we get a grip on a playoff spot without playing the entire second half of the season like we’re facing elimination with every game?” I’d like to see what the Wild do in a playoffs where they clench a regular slot with 4-6 games and 2+ weeks left in the regular season for once, and preferably without having to play with their tails on fire to recover from some major, inexplicable 20+ game slump.

Grouse

I’d rather see Coyle traded before Granlund. He just doesn’t have the trade value Granlund does, unless some team inexplicably is high on him.

You look at the core of youngsters that had us all excited, I still think they are not meeting expectations accept Zucker. Nino has shown a little more, but Coyle and Granlund are kind of stuck. Granted these guys have been playing just 2.5 years and are all around 23 years old, so I am basically looking at no uptick from year 1 to year 2 (throw out their first partial season). I am not sure that is fair when I look at stats.

I’d keep the core of youngsters for one more year or until the trade deadline.

I don’t see where any of the top 6 vets get traded. Pominville probably is the most likely candidate, but it is remote. We’ll see, Fletch generally has surprises.

Yeo needs to start believing in the youngsters vs beating the veterans to death with icetime…Case in point, not putting Nino or Zucker on the powerplay…If you look at Nino/Zucker/Coyle at the beginning of the year, they were floating all over the place, 3rd/4th line, heck they even had Zucker on the checking line for awhile…Give these kids some familiarity with who they play with and what their roles are and you’ll start seeing production.

Yeo needs to grow a pair and start taking icetime away from vets like Vanek, Pominville, Suter and start giving it to the hungry players willing to go in the corners and take a hit to keep puck possession…

If they end up keeping pretty much the same team next year, priority #1 is firing Brunette and completely changing their powerplay mentality and personnel, it was laughable all year and they never changed it…

I do believe that they need to shuffle in guys from PP2 or play PP2 more. They seemed to get more time in the playoffs and it was paying off with #1 PP getting rest, although it was a small sample size and I think PP2 only scored once.

I sure would like to see Coyle get it dialed in. I wasn’t able to watch nearly as many games as I’d like to this season but there were times he looked very very good. I assume Dubnyk has found a home here and will enjoy a more “normal” season next time around.
I think the future looks bright and other than the obvious areas needing improvement I’d like to see better draft day decisions.
It’s a tough division they reside in and much like rooting for Big Ten teams I’d like to see the cup won by our division but I’m not sure I can pull for the Hawks. It’s kinda turning into a Packers type scenario.
Now we can all enjoy some great hockey without the screaming, throwing bricks at the tv mental anguish.

I’ve enjoyed this thread and have learned a lot from you guys, thanks!

belletaine wrote:

I assume Dubnyk has found a home here and will enjoy a more “normal” season next time around.

We can all hope. But Dubnyk is an unrestricted free agent, so anything could happen. From what I’ve read, it’s unlikely any other team will be willing to pay him what the Wild will offer, but you never know.

Considering our Plan B is that we don’t have a Plan B, it sounds like signing Dubnyk is the top priority. I’m happy for Dubnyk, his is a real hockey feel-good story and by the sounds of it, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

It was refreshing to hear Fletcher’s account of the Dubnyk signing. I liked his candor, he was as surprised as everyone else at the way it worked out.

I’ll be somewhat sad to see Backstrom and Harding go. Backstrom has the most wins of any Wild goaltender and the both played some great hockey for us.

Grouse

Backstrom was my favorite. He was never himself after suffering that injury in warmup of game one 2 seasons ago. I really wanted to see what he could do in the post season, because he dominated in the finish playoffs.

Russo had another good blog or article today about the wild being handcuffed as far as making moves. We might have to hope the youngsters had a bed year and we’re over confident this year against the hawks.

Boy, it’ll be a scramble if we can’t sign. Dubnyk, both sides sounds like they want a deal done.

Not sure why everyone is so disappointed in Granlund. I thought he had a great postseason, especially compared to some *cough Vanek cough*. His regular season point totals probably would have had a decent boost as well if Pominville’s shooting percentage doesn’t drop by half. There were many times throughout the season where you would see Granlund set him up and he would miss the net or the puck. Is he ever going to be a great goal scorer, probably not, but I don’t think he’s ever been billed as such. He’s also a much better two way player than PMB ever was.

I think Granlund should stay simply because this kinda’ magic is in him… …RR

We agreed Granlund had a good postseason. He actually seemed more willing to finish checks than most of the guys on our team, and playoffs are when you need to do that. I would like to see him step up his game every year, but like I said, it’s not really fair to judge a guy from his first to second year. Call it the sophomore slump or whatever you want. That second year is tough.

Let’s Go Lightning!

… too soon?

mplspug wrote:

Let’s Go Lightning!

… too soon?

Some really quality players led by Stamkos. Man he has a wicked shot if he gets in the clear.

I just heard last night that Stamkos is kind of Tampa’s version of a grizzled playoff vet. At 25. I only caught 2 of the games vs the Canadiens, but the bolts can unload with plenty of firepower and put plenty of pucks behind probably one of the best 3 goaltenders in the league.

Plenty to admire in a young team like that. I can see Tampa being a contender for the next 3-5 years with the lineup they’ve got now considering the talent and the ages.

Grouse

Stamkos is a free agent next year I believe, his contract will be astronomical..

I thought at the beginning of the year they were legit cup contenders. They have a lot of fire power and a good goalie. Their defense ain’t bad either.

If they meet the rangers I give them a slight edge, but I see it as a toss up.

If they meet the capitols, I think they are in the finals.

How bad would the ratings be for Ducks v. Lightning?